IN OPEN REVOLT 
and showed the men once more how to do it. They agreed 
with me, except Alcides, who became enraged to such an 
extent that his eyes bulged out of their orbits in his fury. 
He brandished one of the big levers in the air, and, shout¬ 
ing at the top of his voice, proceeded to give a long 
harangue stating that Araguary — his native town — 
produced greater men than England or any other country, 
and inciting the other men to open revolt against me. 
This was a serious affair and most unexpected, as so 
far I had counted on Aicides to stand by me, no matter 
what happened. The other men were undecided. Al¬ 
though they were always ready to revolt, they had more 
confidence in the brain of an Englishman than in that of 
an Araguary man. Alcides suggested that they should 
take possession of the canoe and everything else, and that 
I should be left on the rocks. He shouted to the men 
to take the canoe along, and he himself pushed with all 
his might, the canoe not budging the tenth part of an inch. 
I sat down on a rock. I merely said that the canoe 
would not move until I wished it to move. This state¬ 
ment I made because I saw that in their stupidity they 
had placed some pieces of wood under the canoe which 
acted as wedges instead of levers; one piece in particular 
— a roller which had split in two—-could not possibly 
move along the rough wooden rails. The men pushed 
and worked with all their might for over three hours, the 
canoe remaining still like a solid rock. At last they came 
to me and asked me to show them how to move it. I 
placed the rollers where they would be effective, removed 
the wedges which were impeding her journey, and with 
very little effort the canoe moved along. 
With wild yells of excitement the men proclaimed this 
a miracle, always excepting Alcides, who, with a fierce 
expression on his face, stood now on one side, fondling his 
rifle. The other men chaffed him and even insulted him, 
saying that he had made them struggle for nothing, as 
201 
